z2go

Great find! I found that Z-Car creations was also impossible to get a hold of... I don't know if they stopped making the kits or what, but they wouldn't respond to my emails. I'll be ordering some stuff from these guys soon.

Sorry to hear you are moving on, I definitely hope it goes to good hands. I agree with rturbo, whoever buys it should have to keep in touch! Watching your build and seeing the finished product is inspiring, and i would hate to see this car disappear forever. It's kind of a living legend.

A teaser shot of it just after paint... I had this surprise picture on my phone when I got home from work just now.

Thanks man. Yea, it has been a week... but you can't rush awesomeness. I just got a call, it's going to be sprayed this evening, and then likely home by the middle of next week, if everything goes as planned.

You should probably refrain from asking for offers, the mods are going to start to think you are trying to circumvent the rules by not donating to place an for sale ad. If you want to donate, there is a link in the bottom right corner of the main page where you can donate, $20 will get you the right to sell as much stuff as you want, and then you can put the motor and everything in the classified area, to get some more traffic.

Do some searches in the electrical section, and try some of the other sites to see what you can come up with to solve those problems. What you have sounds like some bad grounds and other wiring issues.

Congrats on the new car. I hate to burst your bubble, but the ODO reading is most likely rolled over at least once, if not several times. Does the engine match the ID tags? That's an easy way to see if it's even the original motor. These cars are old, and most all of them have a ton of history (good and bad). If you want to remove the louvers just start unscrewing things, they come off pretty easily. There should be a hinge at the top so you can unscrew from the bottom. They are glued on the glass with mounting plates, so you will have a lot of stuff to scrape off. By the way, what is a Wangan Midnight Project?

Here's the link, it's mostly about the sump that I added, but hopefully there's enough info for you for the cleaning process. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/90977-my-stock-fuel-tank-sump-kit-modinstall/page__view__findpost__p__861837 The solutions are considered hazardous, definitely wear gloves. If you read the MSDS sheet on the POR-15 website, it says the specific precautions and what you can do for cleanup and how to neutralize.

+1 for the POR-15 system. I did my fuel tank with it and it turned out nice. You definitely want to make the whole process take a couple days, if you rush it, it will not turn out well. The hardest part is sealing off all the holes so the solutions can soak on every surface. The dirtier the tank, the longer it needs to soak. I had a pretty clean tank with only a few blemishes on the inside, and I let it soak for half a day, turning it all around to get the varnish off. You know you've really got it clean when you stick your nose inside and all you can smell is fresh metal. I took some pictures of the process and posted them on here, let me know if you would like the link.

I suggest going to the Carfax website and ponying up the $15 to run a VIN check. This question has been asked often and to no avail. No one really has an active running Carfax account that they pay money for to run checks for other people. If you are planning on buying the car, think about the results if you were to decide you DON'T want to afford that $15.

I had a couple of mechanically inclined buddies that would come over and work until all hours of the night on the Z with me when I was starting the tear down last year, but since we are in the military, inevitably they have both been reassigned elsewhere. I do still have one buddy who will come over whenever I'm doing anything on the Z, even things that are complete nightmares, like scraping undercoating or an equally crappy job. He is married but doesn't own a house or have any other projects, so he enjoys having a hobby-by-proxy. He's the kind of guy that would come over all day to help you scrub oily crap off of suspension parts, and not expect anything in return. Of course, I would do the same for him. That kind of person is few and far between, it seems.

I stopped by the shop today to bring the motor back home, and took some pictures of the car with my real camera. Most of the parts are ready for paint, only the hood and one door have some issues to work out. He estimates it should be done by next week. I also took the Supertrapp muffler out that I've had forever, with the intention of taking some pictures to put on Ebay... but then I feel back in love with it again.

Keep up the good work. I ran into similar problems with my MSA type III bumper as you are having. Are the mounting flanges (the ones that rest on the bottom of the headlight bucket) the same on either side? If so, is the driver side headlight bucket warped at all on the bottom? Those bumpers are a pain because there are so many factors that can lead to misalignment, especially on a 30-40 year old car.

In my experience and opinion, value is going to be determined by whether or not you have a buyer for that particular piece. Sure, they are going to be worth something, because there are plenty of rusted out, damaged Z's out there. However, if you are looking for a quick turnaround and profit, good luck. Since body panels are so large, bulky and heavy, no one is likely going to want to buy one long-distance and pay for the shipping costs incurred while still allowing you a profit. So, you are then stuck with a bunch of Z parts that you didn't need in the first place, taking up valuable space waiting for that buyer that may never come. But, if you need the part, it's definitely worth YOUR time and money to get it for YOU.

Careful with buying an engine from Phoenix, I've heard some horror stories. I personally don't have any experience with them, but I have heard of either people ending up with a motor that is nothing like it was advertised (performance-wise) or worse, a motor that has horrible craftsmanship. If you are going to spend the money on it, you should find a good local race shop that can build you what you want and will back up their product.

Thanks Tim! I just got a call from my guy last night, he said it will most likely be going to paint on Wed or Thurs, and should be ready for drop off within a week after that. After that you should come down to check it out!

Since you said this is a new hobby to you, here's my advice based on personal experience. In my opinion, you can probably get away with the straight swap for that price range, and do a nice job. If you are looking for a complete resto-job, ESPECIALLY if you are farming out the work, you might want to quadruple your budget. The problem with sending the car off for a complete restoration/mod project is that the labor involved usually costs way more than the materials. You should research chassis reinforcement, especially if you are planning on breaking 300hp. I don't think putting an automatic in it would decrease the value, it's more of a personal preference, I feel. As for the fuel smell, that is a classic problem. You can search for solutions on here and the other sites, but in a nutshell, it will probably involve replacing a lot of door/hatch/etc weatherstripping, DEFINITELY replacing the taillight seals, and most likely replacing the fuel tank vent hoses and fuel filler neck. You will also probably want to look at replacing the soft rubber fuel lines going from the fuel tank to the hard lines, and in the engine bay as well. (After re-reading your post, I would lay money on it that your fuel filler neck needs to be replaced, and probably the vent lines too). I'm knee-deep in my SBC resto mod project, and the only thing I'm farming out is the paint and body work... which is running me around 12k for custom bodywork, fiberglass MSA bumper work, paint etc. So far, not including the paint, I am about $10k in parts into it, and expect to spend at least another $5k in the next eight months or so. Granted, I am doing a complete frame-off (or whatever you want to call it) restoration, where I am replacing all the rubber, shocks, springs, hard lines, and various pieces of hardware. What is your end goal? How anal-retentive do you feel you are going to be with the project? The problem with starting a project like this is when you go to fix one thing, you find three more things that were hidden that you now want to fix, and three more things under each of those, until you have the car completely stripped with not a bolt left on it, and it's going to the sandblaster to be completely blasted/primed for $2k (yes, that is what I did). I could go on and on, as the spectrum of possibilities is endless.

I think making it more expensive will make sure that only kids with more wealthy parents will be allowed to crash into other people. So, instead of a 1985 Toyota Corolla hitting you, it will be a 2008 Honda S2000. Changing the driving age will only be effective if it's raised to 21. Supposedly, scientifically, that is around the time that the human brain becomes fully developed in the region that controls the ability to process long-term consequences. However, this is highly impractical. In any case, the most promising sounding plan would be as stated earlier, to have a long, drawn out probationary period where the student driver is trained better, evaluated more heavily, and restricted for a longer period of time. But, they will still act how they will, until they run into enough other people to realize their actions do have consequences.

Looks awesome! Glad to see another beautiful Z done well.

Got to visit the shop today, took some shots (unfortunately just with the phone, again) of the paint progress. It's looking awesome!

While waiting for the car to come home, I went ahead and did some work on the differential. Opened it up, cleaned it up really well, and painted it with some POR-15. I also got bored with it and decided to polish up the cover, and cleaned up the fill/drain plugs. Absolutely not necessary... but I think it came out really nice. Now, it's filled up with oil, has a new breather, and is ready to go in when the car comes home.

Interesting. Mine has the VSS sensor in the tail housing where the drive gear is, which I guess can be swapped out for a bullet-style driven gear housing. In case you hadn't found these yet, I used this: http://robrobinette.com/tire_diameter.htm and this: http://www.bgsoflex.com/speedo1.html to make the calculation on what driven gear to get. I'm thinking it's not going to be an exact science, especially depending on specific tire sizes, but should be able to get it pretty close, and for cheap as long as you don't have to swap out the drive gear.

For the wiring harness, check this place out: http://www.autowiringsolutions.com/ I ordered from him and I was very happy, especially because every wire is labeled every 6 inches along with the color code. Couldn't be simpler. Plus it's a hell of a lot cheaper than Painless.

Hey Goth, what color is your speedo drive gear? I remember you saying that you had both a mechanical and electronic connection on the transmission, so you didn't have to swap gears, but I'm curious if you looked inside. I have the same year WC T-5 but it only had the electronic hookup.